Carolyn Grace
Carolyn Grace (1951 or 1952 – 2 December 2022) was an Australian-British pilot and aircraft restorer, and the only qualified female pilot of the Supermarine Spitfire.[1]
Grace grew up on a farm in New South Wales, where air travel was an essential part of everyday travel to cover long distances in rural Australia. In 1979, her husband Nick found two Spitfires for sale, and decided to buy them.[2] They continued the restoration work in the 1980s, while Grace learned to fly a biplane. Following Nick's death after a car crash in 1988, she learned to fly the Spitfire.[3][4] In 1990, she made her first solo Spitfire flight and qualified as a pilot for the aircraft.[5] While female test pilots had flown the Spitfire during World War II as part of the Air Transport Auxiliary, Grace was the only qualified female pilot ever to take part in display flying.[2]
Though she was pressured not to take up solo flying as a widow with two children, she felt she needed to in order to commemorate her late husband.[2] She subsequently accumulated 900 flying hours, performing at various air shows and memorial events. The Spitfire ML407, which she and her husband had restored to working order, became known as the "Grace Spitfire".[3] The aircraft was kept at RAF Bentwaters, Woodbridge, Suffolk,[6] and the expensive insurance costs were met by Aon, who sponsored her events.[2]
In 2004, Grace flew this Spitfire over Chartwell, former residence of Winston Churchill, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day.[7] In 2011, she flew the plane as part of the 75th anniversary of the Spitfire's first flight in 1936.[5]
Grace died on 2 December 2022 in a car accident in New South Wales aged 70.[1][3]
References
- ^ a b "World's only female Spitfire pilot killed in car crash 34 years after her husband died same way". The Independent. 7 December 2022. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
- ^ a b c d "Wings of Desire". The Independent. 9 May 1999. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
- ^ a b c Lough, Catherine (7 December 2022). "World's only female Spitfire pilot dies in car crash". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
- ^ "Spitfire flypast for 'world's only' woman pilot". BBC News. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
- ^ a b "Spitfire pilot Carolyn Grace killed in car accident". UK Aviation News. 7 December 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
- ^ "Suffolk: Spitfire pilot Carolyn Grace dies in Australia". East Anglia Daily Times. 8 December 2022. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
- ^ "Spitfire flies after replica fear". BBC News. 7 June 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2022.